Culture of Azerbaijan

A trip to Azerbaijan can become a fascinating journey into the world of beauty. The country, which has a vast cultural and historical heritage, is decorated with majestic architectural monuments, some of which have survived thousands of years.

Be sure to admire the Maiden Tower - one of the oldest structures in Azerbaijan, which rises in the center of the Baku Fortress - Icherisheher and, together with it, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Here, within the walls of the Fortress, is another outstanding monument of Azerbaijani architecture - the historical and archaeological complex "Palace of the Shirvanshahs" (15th-16th centuries), also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Of interest are also examples of modern architecture built in Baku, such as the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center or the Flame Towers complex, which have become new architectural symbols of the capital.

Unique rock paintings - more than 4,000 petroglyphs, which can be attributed to the first ancient monuments of fine art in Azerbaijan, are hidden in Gobustan. This is also an object of the UNESCO World Heritage List.

During your trip to Azerbaijan, your ears will be caressed by national music everywhere. Many achievements of the musical culture of the Azerbaijani people have entered the golden fund of world creativity. And the traditional genre of the Azerbaijani musical oral tradition - mugham, in 2008 was declared by UNESCO as one of the "masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity". You can get acquainted with this art in more detail at the International Mugham Center in Baku.

The branch of professional art of oral tradition also includes the musical and poetic creativity of ashugs (from the word "eshg" - love) - singers-storytellers-poets, which was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, along with one of the Azerbaijani musical instruments with which the ashugs accompany themselves - the tar.

It is difficult to imagine Baku without jazz. The founder of Azerbaijani jazz was Vagif Mustafa-zade, who created a new musical genre - jazz-mugam, mixing elements of jazz with Azerbaijani folk music. You can enjoy live jazz performances at the Baku Jazz Center.

While in Azerbaijan, be sure to check out the national carpets; you might want to take home one of the magnificent examples of this art. In 2010, “Traditional Art of Weaving Azerbaijani Carpets in Azerbaijan” was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Take a look at the unique carpets from the collection of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum - the world's first specialized museum for the collection, preservation and study of carpets.

You can buy carpets in specialized stores, a large number of which are concentrated on the territory of the historical and architectural reserve "Icherisheher".

It is impossible to ignore another masterpiece of national creativity - kelagayi - an Azerbaijani women's silk scarf that easily passes through a wedding ring. Today, this art is most common in the city of Basgal in the Ismayilli region and in the city of Sheki - the ancient center of the silk industry of Azerbaijan. The ancient silk factory “Sheki-Ipek”, where kelagayis are produced, still operates here. And in the Basgal Silk Center “Kelagayi”, there is a unique interactive museum, where visitors can watch the process of making national scarves live.